Coupeville High School’s Science Olympiad team competed at the Northwest Regional Science Olympiad completion on Feb. 28 at Seattle Central College.

Coupeville was one of only four schools from the event to advance to the state competition to be held at Highline Community College in Des Moines on April 18.

The team bested several larger 4A schools to advance to its first state competition, bringing home two second-place wins, one third-place win, three fourth-place wins and one fifth-place win.

Coupeville has been competing in Science Olympiad for the last five years, but this is its first time qualifying for state.

Science Olympiad is a science-based competition where teams of students compete in different STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) related areas, including chemistry, physical science, natural sciences, physics, engineering and biology. Events include lab activities, build and design projects, and knowledge-based events that test comprehension of the subject area.

Coupeville’s team has been preparing for competition since last October under the direction of middle school science teacher Terry Welch.

Coupeville’s team is really a community effort. Welch recruited local volunteers with expertise in particular areas to help students prepare for competition.

The team also competed on Feb.7 at an invitational event at Raisbeck Aviation High School in Seattle. Students used lessons learned at the invitational to improve on their events and that hard work helped propel the team to success at regionals.

Now the team is busy preparing for the state competition with hopes of advancing to nationals, which will be held in Lincoln, Neb., in May.